Top of camera controls

The controls on the top of the EOS 500D are identical to the EOS 450D. The only design change is the color of the mode dial, which has changed from black to silver. The shutter button comes at the same angle as before, behind this are the control dial and the ISO button, with the mode dial and power switch to the left. Finally the two buttons 'under your thumb' are AE lock and AF point selection.

Basic zone exposure modes

Full Auto and the six scene exposure modes are collectively referred to as the 'Basic Zone', in this 'Zone' certain settings are either fixed, restricted or unavailable, as shown in this table. Restricted / variable settings are detailed in the second table. In the basic zone the camera will indicate that blur may occur because of slow shutter speeds, it does so by blinking the shutter speed on the LCD and viewfinder status bar. For the first time in a 'Rebel' class camera, RAW image recording is available in the 'Basic Zone' (thank you Canon).

Creative Auto
A new mode in which exposure can be modified using two sliders - one representing depth-of-field, the other representing brightness, essentially sticking a 'results-orientated' face onto a shiftable program mode.

AI Focus

 Single
 Continuous
 Self-Timer

 Auto
 Manual
 Flash off
 Red-eye

 Standard
 Portrait
 Landscape
 Mono

Creative zone exposure modes

The five exposure modes will be more familiar to (and preferred) by most prosumer / professionals. All menu functions and camera settings are available in these modes and can be used in any combination.

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Description

Program Auto (flexible)
Very similar to Auto exposure but you have access to all the normal manual controls, can set the ISO, exposure compensation, use AE lock, bracketing etc. The Program AE is flexible which means that you can select one of a variety of equal exposures by turning the main dial. Example:

Shutter-Priority Auto
In this mode you select the shutter speed and the camera will calculate the correct aperture depending on metered exposure, exposure compensation and ISO sensitivity. Turn the main dial to select shutter speed in the range of 30 to 1/4000 sec (in 0.3 or 0.5 EV exposure steps depending on C.Fn 1).

Aperture-Priority Auto
In this mode you select the aperture and the camera will calculate the correct shutter speed depending on metered exposure, exposure compensation and ISO sensitivity. Turn the main dial to select aperture (in 0.3or 0.5 EV exposure steps depending on C.Fn 1). The exact range of apertures will depend on the lens used.

Manual Exposure
In this mode you define the exposure by selecting the aperture and the shutter speed manually. Turn the main dial to select shutter speed, hold the Av/exposure compensation button and turn the main dial to select aperture. If you change the exposure the meter graphic on the viewfinder status bar and LCD will reflect the exposure level compared to the metered exposure, if it's outside of +/- 2EV the indicator bar will blink either + or -.

Automatic Depth-Of-Field
This mode, common on Canon SLRs, automatically controls the depth of field to ensure that the subjects covered by all of the focusing points, from those close to the camera to those far away from the camera remain sharply defined (are within the depth of field). Note that AF point selection is set at 'Auto'.

Movie mode

Movie mode is one of the few (but arguably the most interesting) new additions to the EOS 500D. After the EOS 5D Mark II the 500D is only the second Canon DSLR to feature a movie mode. Unlike the 5D Mark II though, movies can only be recorded using the dedicated setting on the mode dial.

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Description

Movie mode
Movies are recorded in .mov (Quicktime) format using H.264 codec for video and PCM for audio. The maximum duration is 29m 59sec, maximum file size is 4GB. You can define the output size but other settings such as frame rate and compression level are fixed.

You start and stop recording by pressing the dedicated movie button on the back of the camera. Pressing the shutter button while you are recording a video will interrupt the video and record a stills image. You can also adjust the brightness of your movies using exposure compensation while you're shooting.

Pressing the SET button will bring up the movie settings. You can change the following parameters:

Shooting mode buttons

Button

Operation

AE/FE Lock / AF in Live View
Press to trigger automatic exposure and lock the exposure for the next shot. Hold the button to lock the exposure for more than one shot. The exact function of this button can be set via C.Fn 10 (see below). In Live View this button is used to trigger auto focus.

AF point selection button
Press to choose change AF point selection, press the SET button to switch between automatic or manual point selection, use the cursor buttons or main dial to select the point in manual mode.

Play mode buttons

Button

Operation

Thumbnail index / reduce magnificationIf in single view play mode, pressing this button will switch to a 2 x 2 thumbnail index and once more for a 3 x 3 index. If already magnified it will step back in magnification levels once.

Magnify
Press to magnify the current image, there are fifteen steps up to a maximum magnification of 10x. Use the cursor buttons to scroll around the image while magnified. It is possible to browse images while maintaining magnification by simply turning the main dial.

Shutter button / AE lock button action (custom function 10)

Sports photographers prefer to use setting 1 or 3 where you can control when the camera AF executes, a simple press of your thumb will start AF, then you can fire off as many shots as you like (more quickly obviously) without the camera refocusing.

This is a great little camera for point and shoot photography. We try to keep easy to use cameras around for family, etc. so we don;t have to lug our big pro DSLRs everywhere. With a kit lens, it’s hard to beat.